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rocksmom's 12 Long - Grassy Valley

14K views 53 replies 20 participants last post by  rocksmom 
#1 · (Edited)
Forget take 2, I'm now on take eleventy billion. Here are the updated specs:

Equipment
Mr. Aqua 12 gallon long
Eheim ECCO 2232
[strike]Custom acrylic spray bar[/strike] Stainless jet pipe and intake
36" FugeRay
GLA Atomic Paintball V2 co2 setup with inline diffuser

Hardscape
Up Aqua shrimp sand
Pa Hai stones

Fertilizers
[strike]Pfertz[/strike] EI dry dosing, root tabs

Flora
Mixed carpet (DHG belem, Marsilea minuta, S. repens, accidental UG)
Various stems... will add names later

Fauna
Some kind of shrimp (red supremes? pumpkins? bv?)
Boraras maculatus

Current FTS:
 
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#2 · (Edited)
Initial Setup

I found this piece of wood at a LFS and knew I had to use it one of my 12 longs. Here it is in the empty tank the day I got it:



Finally got around to working on the tank today. First I put some "anchors" on the wood to stabilize and hopefully keep it from floating. I'll probably still have to weight it down for awhile. I'm kicking myself for not soaking since I bought it.

Had to cut a flat spot on the one end to attach the anchor.





Then I added a base layer of black sand and some egg crate to support the rocks and create the hill.



And here it is with the wood, rocks, and the rest of the sand in place.



For plants I'm planning on a moss carpet in between the rocks on the left and around where the wood touches on the right with and open area in the center. I have some stainless steel mesh coming from h4n for this, and a boatload of peacock moss in my current shrimp tank. I'm planning on training the hydrocotyle to grow on the wood and hopefully cover the emersed area as well. Just have to figure out the best way to attach it. I'm thinking fishing line since I haven't seen anyone use glue for stem plants. The rocks and maybe the wood will get some mini pellia and possibly fissidens as well.

I was thinking about adding something else poking up from from within the moss, but I'm not sure what. Some nice, large anubias nana would probably work, but all I have available right now is micro and it would get lost pretty quickly. I'm open to suggestions. Just something for a little height in the front right and back left corners.
 
#3 ·
That driftwood is b e a utiful. Wow. That tank needs a carpet, some weeping moss on the DW and maybe some anubias nana petite on the rocks and it is beautiful for life.


From MABJ's iPhone
2G Fluval Spec ~ fauna and flora in the works!
 
#6 ·
Thanks, it was a great find. Not sure what kind of wood it is though, so hopefully it holds up well.

I thought about doing petite instead of moss on the rock side, but enough petite to look full would cost an arm and a leg. Or a kidney. I have probably 6 or so small ones, but not nearly enough.

Oh wow! Love the scape :)
Thank you! This is definitely my favorite so far. We'll see how it turns out.

*tosses out 60-P and places order for a 12L*
that driftwood is f'n sexy
Ha, made me laugh.
 
#12 ·
Current FTS:
Very Nice!!! You has a true artistic touch.

Do fight the urge to use more than two sp. of plant. This 'Scape is so Zen, it would be a crime to make it complicated. :smile:[/QUOTE]

AGREED.


From MABJ's iPhone
2G Fluval Spec ~ fauna and flora in the works!
 
#13 ·
Sorry can't resist, maybe a few tall hair grass plants behind the driftwood on the slope like Eleocharis montevidensis? Then in front of the wood on the slope a small version of Hair grass Eleocharis parvula Moss covered wood? Just a few whips of Eleocharis parvula behind the driftwood on the right side to repeat the planting. leaving the middle open and clear for contrast.



I think I have Tank envy. :hihi:
 
#18 ·
Quick update.

Had to take a week off from fishy stuff. Got a pretty deep cut on my finger and wanted to make sure it didn't get infected or anything. Anyway, in that time I chickened out of filling it as is and decided to (carefully) pull the wood out and soak it. I only had to move two of the rocks so it should be easy to get back together when the wood is ready. It's currently soaking in a spare 29g. It seemed to soak up the water pretty quickly when I was filling the tank, so hopefully that's a sign that it will also sink quickly. My mesh arrived from h4n a long time ago now, so I'm going to start cutting it to fit the rocks and getting the moss on it soon.
 
#21 ·
Thanks! My finger's doing well, so now I'm just waiting for the wood to sink. I actually partially flooded the tank to see how the sand would hold up with the slope and so far so good. Didn't think that was really worthy of pics though.

If you just threw in a shoal of glass catfish in the tank as it looks now, it'll really look like art :) But that's no fun and not a challenge without plants. Looking forward to seeing what you decide with it!
I actually considered something like that, but it's such a perfect shrimp tank that I couldn't pass up at least doing the moss for them. These tanks really are beautiful, even empty.
 
#23 ·
So it's only been what, 5 or 6 months since I updated? Well not much happened in the meantime. Basically that wood was a nightmare. Took months to stop floating and even then I couldn't get it to stay put. I switched out the plastic "anchors" for some slate and it still wanted to tip because it was so top heavy. It was really soft too, I don't think it would have stood up well longterm.

In the meantime the tank was just full of HUNDREDS of shrimp and about 5 pounds of moss and riccia. I finally cleaned it out on the weekend to work on it again. I had bought Up Aqua shrimp sand to go in it thinking I would try my hand at some CBS since I was successful with neos. Then my husband suggested I finally get my co2 setup that I've longed for since I started with planted tanks. I think he just felt guilty because he set up a reef tank in our second 12L which was some definite $$$.

So now this tank has a split personality. Intended as a shrimp tank, with shrimp sand and all, but now going high tech. I guess it will be a nice little experiment for me. If I stick with neos I wouldn't necessarily mind a slower breeding rate. My blue velvet population is a bit overwhelming.

Went on a bit of a spending spree this week. Have a 36" FugeRay coming to replace the 30" that's currently hanging over the tank. The 36" will sit right on it. Ordered some plants on the SnS. GLA setup is ordered including a really cool drop checker that hangs on the rim of the tank. Paintball tank coming from Amazon tomorrow. Next update should be the new equipment set up on the tank. Current photo with new hardscape is in the first post.
 
#24 ·
It's like Christmas in February. My GLA order, paintball tank, light, and the DHG I ordered on the SnS all got here today! Guess I need to actually decide on a hardscape and set it up soon.

GLA order:


The regulator:


Drop checker:


The new 36" FugeRay on the tank (Yes, that's a different piece of wood than the other photo. I don't think I like it though. Too bulky in this tank.):


And where the co2 will sit on the stand:
 
#26 ·
So I finally settled on a scape and got a few plants in. I ended up skipping out on the wood entirely and used the set of Pa Hai stones I bought from AFA last year. There's already some anubias and mini pellia on them, and I'll probably add some more pellia soon. I have to trim some from another tank. Maybe some fissidens as well. Here's the tank with the rocks and some DHG:



I haven't filled the tank yet. Right now I have it covered with plastic wrap and the light on it, so basically in DSM. I'm considering keeping it like that for a little while. Not long enough for the hairgrass to fill in, just enough for the roots to establish a little so that when I fill it and hook up the filter I don't have to replant them. Thoughts? Any idea how long that would take?

Here's the same picture but with my lovely artist's rendition of what I'm picturing for it. The red is rotala mini butterfly and the green is echinodorus angustifolia vesuvius. I have a few stems of the rotala coming from the SnS already. I went to buy the vesuvius locally this weekend, but they were sold out. Probably look for that on the SnS as well.



Oh and my husband convinced me to get the inline diffuser so I'm going to order that today. Hopefully get my lily pipes made this weekend as well. Think I'm going to try a do aqua "jet" type instead of the spray bar.
 
#27 ·
Love the plant choice; If you find someone selling that rotala mini butterfly gimme a headsup maybe if they have some left over^^

I just ordered an Inline diffuser last week haha. Tired of breaking my glass LOL. I am interested in how that jet outflow is. I haven't seen one in use or watched a video. maybe i will troll around youtube for a bit...

I think once you get those plants and it all grows in; its going to be an amazing tank. Keep up the good updates! cheers
 
#29 ·
Thanks! I knew I wanted to finally try something red since I've really only had lower light plants until now. I ordered 5 stems of it from h4n. He has it listed in his sale thread, but you have to pm to see how much he has available. I think I saw bartohog also had some listed in his last sale thread.

I ordered my diffuser yesterday and it says it shipped already today, so I should have it soon. And yeah, I haven't seen the jet pipe working either. I did a quick youtube search the other day, but I couldn't find anything. I'll have to look again. The filter I'm using on the tank made a pretty good flow even with the stock eheim outflow, which is essentially just an open pipe. I think the jet will be fine.

Your scape plan looks awesome! Only thing I would suggest would be to leave out that vesuvius you have planned for the far right side. I think the scape would have much better "flow" if you only had that rock outcrop sticking out of the hairgrass carpet. Either way the tank's lookin great, can't wait to see this one filled!
Thank you! I was going back and forth on the vesuvius on the right. I guess I'll let it depend on how many of them I can find. I can always pull it out and let the hairgrass spread if the real thing doesn't look better than my drawing.
 
#28 ·
Your scape plan looks awesome! Only thing I would suggest would be to leave out that vesuvius you have planned for the far right side. I think the scape would have much better "flow" if you only had that rock outcrop sticking out of the hairgrass carpet. Either way the tank's lookin great, can't wait to see this one filled!
 
#30 ·
Finally!

So I finally have an update worth sharing. Worked on the tank this weekend and it's finally up and running. Still have a couple more varieties of plants I want to get for it, but it's started at least. Had to take out the slope on the left because of the flow from the jet, it was blowing the substrate everywhere. Also took out the anubias. Changed the plants to a "dutch-ish" scape after buying a ton of stems last week. They need to fill in a lot obviously. Also changed out the black background for a frosted one. Kind of reminds me of those ADA mist tanks they sold awhile ago.



















Plans/thoughts/notes:
  • Empty spot towards the right side is waiting for some limnophila aromatica.
  • DHG will eventually be planted along the whole front, just ran out. Actually plan on doing a mixed carpet, adding in some MM and a little hydrocotyle japan.
  • Flow is STRONG. Will probably have to add a ball valve to keep stems from getting knocked for a loop like the poor HM (I think?) in the middle.
  • Was planning on having the co2 hidden down below, but it was a little too tall once assembled. I don't think it looks bad though. Husband said between that, ss pipes, and the light that it looks "industral."
 
#33 ·
Thanks! Luckily I didn't have to cut it. I bought them on the SnS and they had already been cut to fit a mini m. The only thing I did was switch the mesh out for a finer grade so it would be shrimp safe if/when I add some.

Since it's just the Fugeray and not the Ray 2 I don't think I'll have any issues. I was actually wondering if the par wasn't high enough because I haven't been getting a whole lot of pearling. You have the Ray 2 for yours, don't you? Have you started working on it again?

how is the GLA reg working out so far? Lovely tank btw
Thank you! I'm a complete noob to co2, but so far so good. The bubble rate has held steady since I set it up. I installed the inline diffuser on the filter's intake line and you can hardly see the bubbles in the tank. No 7-up water like I've seen people complain about.
 
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